Despite regular articles in On The Move suggesting that the ex-Silverlink staff are working in some kind of paradise, London Underground are in fact denying the staff some really basic fair treatment. Four of these issues were discussed at the Company Council meeting on 2 July. Management repeatedly said 'no' to quite reasonable demands from RMT - but if you read through to the end, you will find a small yes!

1. Back Pay

   Staff transferred from Silverlink to LUL on 11 November last year, but LUL kept them on their existing (worse) pay and conditions, hoping to save some money. RMT argued all along that if they were good enough to wear the uniform on 11 November, then they were good enough to earn the pay rate. But LUL wouldn't have it.

   Eventually, LUL decided to put them on its own pay rates and conditions from 6 April, justifying this by saying that by this time, most of the ex-Silverlink staff had passed their LUL training. But this means that many staff passed their LUL training earlier but carried on earning lower pay than their LUL workmates for months. RMT argued that the pay rise should have been dated from when the first of them passed their training ie. late January.

   Management said no.

2. Retail Supervisor A

   LUL 'mapped' staff from their Silverlink grades into LUL grades. Most of these mappings were fine - except one. Staff who used to work as Retail Supervisor A (RSA) for Silverlink were mapped into the SAMF. These staff and their union, RMT, believe that their Silverlink grade included sufficient supervisory content to merit their being mapped into the Station Supervisor grade instead. They were usually the most senior member of staff on duty, and while most of their work was based in the ticket office, in any emergency or service disruption, they would take charge and carry out the actions that a Station Supervisor would on any other LUL station.

   In addition, if LUL mapped these staff directly into the Station Supervisor grade, rather than requiring them to go through the application process, the company would be able to fill the SS posts on the ex-Silverlink stations more quickly.

   Management said no.

3. Displacement of SAMFs

   During our dispute earlier this year, the unions forced the company to agree to full traffic-hours supervision of the ex-Silverlink stations. LUL has responded by scrapping loads of SAMF jobs on the stations! Hopefully, many of these SAMFs will be promoted into the new Supervisor jobs, but if some don't, management plan to displace them off their station.

   RMT objected, and insisted that no-one should have the right to stay on their station.

   Management said no.

4. Applying for Supervisor posts

   Management are inviting all SAMFs on the ex-Silverlink stations to apply for the new Station Supervisor posts. However, management intend to allow one application only. RMT proposed that staff who do not succeed the first time should be allowed further attempts, with coaching, because: they are much less familiar with the role and duties of a Station Supervisor than other LUL staff would be; they are under threat of displacement if they fail; and LUL may struggle to fill the Supervisor posts from outside these groups.

   In similar situations in the past, management have allowed extra attempts - for example, when the Jubilee Line Extenstion led to London Bridge being 'uprated', the resident SS2s were allowed up to four attempts to qualify as SS1 so that they could retain their location.

   Management said no. Then they said OK, they can have two attempts.

The lessons:

1. Management don't care about your rights or even basic fairness.
2. Your union can win you better rights, even if it doesn't win you everything you deserve.
3. It will take more than negotiations to win a fairer deal for workers. That's why RMT believes in action too.
4. So if you want to win more rights, get active in RMT!